Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The United States will send a team to North Korea this year to search for the remains of missing U.S. veterans of the Korean War , the Defense Department announced Friday .

The search -- the first such mission in seven years -- will be conducted sometime this spring by members of the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command .

`` We 're always grateful for the opportunity to recover the remains of our fallen heroes from past wars , '' Pentagon spokesman George Little said . `` And we are hopeful that this process will occur sooner rather than later . I do n't have a specific time frame to give you , but this is something that is very important to us and we 'll clearly focus on . ''

Beginning in 1996 , North Korean and U.S. military teams conducted 33 joint recovery missions looking for remains inside North Korea . More than 225 sets of remains were located , and brought out of the reclusive country . But all that changed in 2005 when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suspended the work , saying that due to rising nuclear tensions at the time , he felt the safety of the U.S. teams could not be guaranteed .

U.S troops killed in action have a last ally

Following talks between the two sides in October , officials agreed to resume the searches this year , according to Air Force Maj. Carie Parker , spokeswoman for the POW/Missing Personnel Office .

The mission , which will include both U.S. and North Korean military personnel , will search two areas of North Korea : Unsan County and near the Chosin/Jangjin reservoir , according to the Defense Department .

About 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as `` unaccounted for '' from the Korean War , the 1950-1953 conflict often referred to as the `` forgotten war . ''

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The mission aims to recover the remains of missing U.S. veterans of the Korean War

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It is expected to be conducted this spring

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Such missions have been on hold since 2005 due to tensions between the U.S. , North Korea